Hereditary nobles' time in Britain's Parliament may be up

Members of Paliament fill an official room.

By Jill Lawless

Oct. 15, 2024 10:35 AM PT

LONDON — Like his ancestors for centuries, the Earl of Devon serves in Parliament, helping to make the laws of the land. But not for much longer.

British lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a bill to strip hereditary aristocrats of the right to sit and vote in House of Lords after more than 700 years. The Labor Party government says the decision will complete a long-stalled reform of Parliament’s upper chamber and remove an “outdated and indefensible” relic of the past.

“In the 21st century, there should not be places in our Parliament, making our laws, reserved for those who are born into certain families,” Constitution Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said Tuesday as he opened debate on the bill in the House of Commons.

He noted that Britain is one of only two countries — the other is Lesotho — with a hereditary element to its parliament.

But Lord Devon thinks it’s risky to tinker with the U.K.’s unwritten constitution, which “has survived an awful lot of slings and arrows of misfortune over a thousand years.”

“The fact that I am doing a job that was granted by the Empress Matilda to my forebear in 1142, and is still ongoing and is still functioning, is a remarkable example of consistency and continuity,” said the earl, a 49-year-old lawyer whose given name is Charles Peregrine Courtenay.

Britain’s Parliament has two chambers: the House of Commons, whose members are directly elected by voters in 650 constituencies across the U.K.; and the unelected Lords. For centuries it was made up of noblemen — women were not allowed until 1963 — whose voting rights were passed down to their children along with their titles. In the 1950s these were joined by “life peers” — retired politicians, civic leaders and other notables appointed by the government.

In 1999 the Labor government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair evicted most of the more than 750 hereditary peers from the Lords, though to avoid an aristocrats’ rebellion, 92 were allowed to remain temporarily.

A quarter-century on, 88 hereditaries are still there, an all-male group with an average age of almost 70. When one dies or retires, their fellow bluebloods hold elections to replace them. Courtenay joined the House of Lords in 2018 after winning an election in which there were 19 candidates and 31 eligible voters.

Peers who sit in the ornate, gilded Lords chamber do not get a salary but can claim 361 pounds ($472) a day in expenses and can enjoy Parliament’s subsidized bars, tea rooms and restaurants. It’s a job for life, unless members choose to retire or — in a recent change — are expelled for non-attendance.

The appointment of peers by successive governments means the Lords is overstuffed, with about 800 members — the second-largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress.

The opposition Scottish National Party has filed a motion to abolish the House of Lords altogether, though that stands little chance of passing. Labor remains committed eventually to replacing the Lords with “an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the U.K.”

While more Lords support the Conservatives than any other party — others, like Courtenay, are nonaligned — some on the left of British politics have come to value the upper house for its role in helping to moderate controversial plans by the previous Conservative government over Brexit and immigration.

Labor’s large House of Commons majority means lawmakers will almost certainly vote Tuesday to send the bill on for further scrutiny, despite Conservative misgivings.

“The checks and balances of the Lords — its tried and tested conventions — work,” said Conservative lawmaker Oliver Dowden, a former deputy prime minister. “We should only fix what is broken and be cautious about rushing into change.”

To become law, the bill also has to get through the House of Lords, which has the power to delay and amend legislation approved by the Commons, but ultimately can’t block it. It is likely to become law in the coming year.

Courtenay, who owns Powderham Castle and its 3,500-acre estate in the southwest England county of Devon, is sanguine about becoming the last in his storied family to sit in Parliament.

“We were responsible for crowning Henry VII. We fought alongside the Black Prince at the Battle of Crécy, and we financed the Agincourt campaign in 1415. And we were first cousins of Henry VIII until he chopped our head off,” he said. “So we’ve been somewhat involved in the workings of government over a long, long time.

“And outside of those moments in the spotlight, there’s been an awful lot of plodding along, trying to support Devon and help the community … a long and satisfying service, which will continue.”

Lawless writes for the Associated Press.